Page 52 of Taken By The Wolves

“You don’t look good,” I say. “You need some medicalhelp?”

“I need you to leave me alone.”

I glance at Reed, who shakes his head. This is pitiful and uncomfortable. “We can’t do that, Aura. The baby needs you. We can help you get set up somewhere so you can take care of her.”

“I don’t want her,” she says. “You think I could even look at that thing… see their faces… remember every day what they did to me. I have nothing. You people… you creatures have taken everything from me.”

Faces? Whose faces?

“Not us,” Reed says firmly. “We’re nothing like them.”

“You’re all the same. Beasts beneath your pretty human shells. You make us believe we can live in your world, but you use us to birth your legacy because you have no women of your own.” She laughs, and it’s a hollow, exhausted sound that tears at my heart. “Except, look what I produced! A female shifter. A freak.”

“A miracle,” I say.

“I needed a miracle before Gregory tore out half my neck. I needed a miracle before they… they…” Tears streak her cheeks. “I needed a miracle before I had to grow a child in my womb… their child.”

I flinch. The baby is sweet and innocent.

“She needs her mother.” I try one last time, even though it’s clear that Aura is traumatized past any kind of empathy for her child.

“She needs to be put out of her misery before she comes of age and is ruined like me.”

Reed shakes his head, turning to scan our surroundings while I think on what to say next. “Does Gregory know about the child?”

She laughs, her eyes wide and her head tipped back.

She seems unhinged.

Wolves are supposed to worship our mates and protect them. Gregory’s done nothing for poor Aura.

“Can we bring you anything? Food. Clothes. If you come with us, we can get you settled into the motel in town. Get you back on your feet.”

Aura shakes her head, her lank hair dropping around her face as she pulls the blanket higher. “Just leave me in peace,” she says.

Peace. She doesn’t have enough food to last more than a day or so. Her clothes are filthy. Is she intending to hide in this shack until she dies? I shiver as the breeze whips around us, already craving the protection of my wolf coat.

“We should go,” Reed says.

I sniff the air, wondering if he’s scented something. We’re close to the border with Gregory’s territory here. We can’t stay too long and risk him crossing over to investigate our presence.

“Peace isn’t something you find alone,” I tell Aura as I rise. “Peace is something you find in friendships and family and love. You’ve lost a lot, but while you have air in your lungs and beats in your heart, there’s always a way out of the darkness. Don’t waste it. If you want us to help, come to the cabin.”

She looks away from me, as though my words disgust her.

In a blink, Reed is back in his wolf form, already bounding toward home.

Scarlet is waiting for us. Our mate.

We don’t have a solution to this baby issue, but as I bound after my brother, eventually taking the lead, I knowwe’re going to need to explain the truth about our bound destinies, whether it’s the right time or not.

25

REED

By the time we arrive home, Scarlet is asleep on the sofa with her head resting in Finn’s lap. The baby is, like Moses, sleeping in a laundry basket. Finn is reading a book, his glasses perched on the end of his nose, and he looks up when we enter the house wearing our boxers and clutching our clothes. The pretense is over. Scarlet knows what we are.

She doesn’t know what she is yet, though.